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A review by chirson
A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz
4.0
Once more I want to write a review and end up with various random scattered impressions. There goes I.
3.5 stars would be more accurate, but since there are no half-stars and there are quite a few 1- and 2- star DNF reviews out there, let's balance it out.
This was the strangest book I've read this year. I tried to tell my SO what was happening and the reactions I got were hilarious.
I deeply enjoyed the narration - both the lack or reliability and the strength of the voice, and how it constructed the story and the character. I really liked the worldbuilding - and would love to spend more time with non-fairies. Unfortunately, the central characters didn't quite make the impression they were supposed to (at least not until the last 1/3 - and Cricket, Piccolo and Josha are still sort of *shrug*; perhaps I'm heartless), some of the plot, while always interesting, felt completely out of the blue (but on that, YMMV, and I don't really mean the biggest plot twists - those I sort of expected), and I wouldn't mind just a touch more clarity at times (but mostly at the beginning - later on things make sense and the plot becomes quite easy to follow; and arguably, this lack of clarity was what kept my eyes so very peeled).
In short, when I was in the middle of the book I wasn't sure how much of my bewilderment was intended - by the end of the book, I was almost certain that all of it. The author seems to accomplish just what she wanted, and the book is fascinatingly weird (think Margo Lanagan short stories [not novels] but multiplied times 5 length-wise, with more straightforward language and more sex). And a comparison to Lanagan is always praise in my book, but I must confess it didn't touch me the way Lanagan does 80% of the time. It had Lanagan's weirdness and cleverness, and it was a very intelligently done book about various important themes, but I wasn't convinced it did all of them justice til the end (case in point - when the character suddenly has this realisation that she doesn't like being a prostitute it feels kind of obvious/too simple) (but then again, that might not be the character but what the narrator thinks the character... you see, this book is very clever).
3.5 stars would be more accurate, but since there are no half-stars and there are quite a few 1- and 2- star DNF reviews out there, let's balance it out.
This was the strangest book I've read this year. I tried to tell my SO what was happening and the reactions I got were hilarious.
I deeply enjoyed the narration - both the lack or reliability and the strength of the voice, and how it constructed the story and the character. I really liked the worldbuilding - and would love to spend more time with non-fairies. Unfortunately, the central characters didn't quite make the impression they were supposed to (at least not until the last 1/3 - and Cricket, Piccolo and Josha are still sort of *shrug*; perhaps I'm heartless), some of the plot, while always interesting, felt completely out of the blue (but on that, YMMV, and I don't really mean the biggest plot twists - those I sort of expected), and I wouldn't mind just a touch more clarity at times (but mostly at the beginning - later on things make sense and the plot becomes quite easy to follow; and arguably, this lack of clarity was what kept my eyes so very peeled).
In short, when I was in the middle of the book I wasn't sure how much of my bewilderment was intended - by the end of the book, I was almost certain that all of it. The author seems to accomplish just what she wanted, and the book is fascinatingly weird (think Margo Lanagan short stories [not novels] but multiplied times 5 length-wise, with more straightforward language and more sex). And a comparison to Lanagan is always praise in my book, but I must confess it didn't touch me the way Lanagan does 80% of the time. It had Lanagan's weirdness and cleverness, and it was a very intelligently done book about various important themes, but I wasn't convinced it did all of them justice til the end (case in point - when the character suddenly has this realisation that she doesn't like being a prostitute it feels kind of obvious/too simple) (but then again, that might not be the character but what the narrator thinks the character... you see, this book is very clever).